Behind The Scenes : Want to see Roseanne’s tattoo? Or cheer for the Screaming Eagles? Get in line.

They bring flowers for Burt Reynolds. They want to see the tattoo above Roseanne Arnold’s left breast.

With the television season in full swing, thou sands of fans are lining up outside studios across the San Fernando Valley. Each afternoon they wait for hours, hoping to be part of a “live studio audience.” Admission is free, but at the popular shows there are rarely enough seats for everyone.

Michael Webb and his wife, Trisha, were turned away from “Home Improvement” on their first try. On a recent Friday night, the couple had again driven from their home in Palmdale to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, hoping for better luck. “We’ve never seen anything filmed before,” Michael Webb explained.

People like the Webbs don’t come to see the show. A 22-minute sitcom can take hours to complete, with scenes repeated over and over. The studio bleachers don’t afford a view of every set, so the audience ends up watching television monitors part of the time.

What these fans really want is an up-close glimpse of their favorite actor or actress.

“We’ve never seen any stars except at the airport,” Webb said.

The celebrities don’t disappoint. Tim Allen grunts like a gorilla for his “Home Improvement” audience. At a recent filming of “Coach,” Craig T. Nelson walked onto the set in a robe and, at the behest of a fan, flashed the crowd. He was wearing blue shorts, which drew thunderous applause. And Burt Reynolds, during a recent filming of “Evening Shade,” leaned over the bleacher railing to kiss a young woman who’d brought him flowers.

“I learned a long time ago, from a man named Gleason who was a kind of surrogate father to me, that you don’t run away from a crowd; you run toward them,” Reynolds said. “That way, they won’t chase you and kill you.”

Producers also know that a happy crowd is vital to their survival. They hire warm-up comics and, in some cases, a band to entertain between takes.

“The audience is absolutely essential to this kind of show. That was proven back in the days of ‘I Love Lucy,’ ” said Peter Bonerz, director of “Murphy Brown,” who also played Jerry the dentist on “The Bob Newhart Show.” “The people are participants in our show. And they’re not just an organic laugh track.”

“The actors feed off the audience,” explained Jim Hampton, who has directed episodes of “Evening Shade.” “When they hear the laughter, they think, ‘Oh, we’re doing something right.’ ”

Each show treats its audience in a slightly different manner. Following is a guide to what you can expect to see and hear at some of the top-rated sitcoms produced in the Valley:

“SEINFELD”: For Jerry Seinfeld, it was an obvious choice to mingle with the crowd before each filming.

“As a comedian, it’s very weird for me to stand in front of an audience and not talk to them,” he said. “I couldn’t do that. It goes against 16 years of experience.”

So he climbs into the bleachers to tell a few jokes. He answers personal questions, too. On a recent Tuesday evening, an audience member asked why he was moving from his West Hollywood home.

After a brief pause, Seinfeld responded: “I make way too much money. I’m not going to lie. I needed something to soak up the excess cash. You know, they pay you a lot to do these television shows. I can’t control that.”

Once the filming begins, though, this informal atmosphere turns businesslike. Seinfeld and the rest of the cast rarely turn their attention away from their work. Each scene is repeated at least two times. If a scene was filmed on location, as is often the case, cast members will recreate it for the audience.

Recently, this resulted in a hilarious bit with Seinfeld and co-star Jason Alexander pretending to drive separate cars. Seinfeld sat on a kitchen chair. Alexander drove the couch.

The stand-up portions of the show--where Seinfeld goes all the way back to his comic roots--are filmed separately. Getting into them is a bit trickier. You have to go see a filming, then ask one of the pages if there is a stand-up session scheduled soon.

“MURPHY BROWN”: Burbank can remain sweltering well into October, and the people waiting outside Warner Bros. Studios on a recent Friday afternoon were growing testy.

“You would think with all the money this show makes, they could put up an awning,” one woman complained.

For most sitcoms, audience members are told to arrive an hour or two early. “Murphy Brown” requires a greater sacrifice. Caroline Oester and Sandra Lutz had been standing at the front of the line all afternoon.

“As long as we get in, I don’t mind waiting in the sun,” Oester said. “This show is worth it.”

One of the highest-rated programs on television, “Murphy Brown” is also one of the toughest to get into. As with other shows, many seats go to VIP guests, so half or more of those in line will be sent home. And once you get inside, there is little fanfare or attention paid to the audience (though the Motown hits that play over loudspeakers make for the hippest warm-up music this side of the “Tonight Show” band). The comic keeps his jokes to a minimum.

“If the show is funny, they’re gonna laugh,” director Bonerz said. “If it isn’t funny, that’s our fault.”

If anything, Bonerz worries about an overenthusiastic crowd. After all, people who are willing to stand in line for five hours tend to be reverential fans.

“On occasion, the audience will hoot and holler and applaud during a scene,” the director said. “Then we have to do a second take.”

“EVENING SHADE”: While Reynolds and the rest of the cast prepare backstage, a five-piece band plays from a platform above the bleachers. Carol Hampton and the Five Easy Pieces offer their particular brand of blues:

Here comes Coach Newton

He’s the coach of Evening Shade

But his head is hanging down

‘Cause he’s losin’ every game.

Newt, Newt, Newt

Can’t you ever win a game?

The way you play that football

Is a low-down dirty shame.

Over the course of a three-hour filming, the music keeps things jumping. And, yes, the band takes requests.

As a bonus, Loni Anderson, Reynold’s wife, showed up at a recent filming with their young son, Quenton, who proceeded to scurry through the 218 people in bleachers. The audience seemed to like that as much as the show.

The elder Reynolds does his part, too, chatting with visitors if he has time.

“This show is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life and it’s because of the people,” Reynolds said. “When they’re screaming and yelling and all stoked up, so am I.”

“COACH”: If the set were any larger, the producers might hire a marching band. They have tried nearly everything else to give their sound stage a college football ambience. A souvenir stand hawks jerseys and caps, just like at the Rose Bowl. The actors burst through a Minnesota Screaming Eagles banner, as if they were playing for a local high school team. Even the audience gets into the act--several are brought down from the bleachers to shake pompons and lead a cheer.

The filming that follows is surprisingly informal. Warm-up comic Bob Perlow tosses gifts to the crowd, coerces at least one audience member to sing and presents chicken dinners, with plastic utensils, to a lucky couple. On a recent Friday, Jerry Van Dyke climbed into the bleachers between takes and performed 15 minutes of stand-up comedy, at one point including his wife, who sat in the front row.

If he died, would she remarry? he asked. Never, she said. If he died, would she bring another man into their home? No, she said. If he died, would she let a new man use his golf clubs?

“Of course not,” she told her husband. “He’s left-handed.”

Tadd and Tess Gall, a Northridge couple, were duly appreciative. “That was the best part of the whole show,” Tadd Gall said.

“THE TONIGHT SHOW”: This talk show has been a studio audience staple for almost 40 years. Now, with Jay Leno and Branford Marsalis at the helm, the warm-up is every bit as enjoyable as the program.

Leno chats with the audience for 15 minutes before each taping. On a recent Wednesday, he walked out in jeans and a denim shirt, his manner equally casual.

“We turn the cameras on at 5:30 and go straight through till 6:30,” he explained. “We keep all the mistakes in, which is fairly obvious if you watch the show on a regular basis.”

Several visitors asked questions, which he answered, and asked for autographs, which he signed.

“I’ve seen you a thousand times,” one man said admiringly.

Leno replied: “That qualifies you as a stalker.”

For the remaining half-hour before show time, Marsalis and his band jam. These are musicians worth paying to see and the mood is playful. Drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts, for example, might scream through a version of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.” At a recent show, trumpeter Sal Marquez hid a jalapeno pepper under the reed of Marsalis’ sax.

As for the program itself, the pace is quick with only brief interruptions for commercials. Unless a particularly popular guest is scheduled, the entire “Tonight Show” experience--from standing in line to walking out--lasts little more than two hours. And tickets are made available beginning at 8 a.m. the day of taping, so attending can be a last-minute decision.

“HOME IMPROVEMENT”: What sets this show apart from others is that the audience gets a chance to be on camera. That’s because Tim Allen’s character is the host of a fictional show called “Tool Time.” So one of the “Home Improvement” sets is a small, phony television studio complete with rows of chairs for its own audience.

Each Friday night before taping begins, the pages at Disney Studios select 45 people from the 240-person “Home Improvement” audience and seat them in “Tool Time.”

“We try to fill it with mostly men,” said Colleen Swanson, a page. “We look for fall colors, dark colors because the show’s supposed to be in Michigan. If they have caps on, that’s even better.”

If they don’t, the warm-up comic distributes an armful of baseball hats bearing the “Tool Time” logo. Occasionally, the stage manager comes by to give simple directions, such as asking people to cheer on cue.

The Webbs ended up sitting in “Tool Time,” which seemed exciting until they realized that the small bleachers afford literally no view of the rest of the stage. Trisha crouched on her chair for most of the night, trying to catch glimpses of the other sets.

“ROSEANNE”: When warm-up comic Michael Burger shows up, maybe 20 minutes before show time, the high jinks begin.

“Are you willing to make noise?” he asks the audience.

While the audience for “Murphy Brown,” for example, is left to react on its own, the people who show up for “Roseanne” are run through their paces. Berger has them practice sighs. He demonstrates frightened gasps. “Laugh as long as you want,” he tells them. “If you want to break into applause, that’s fine too.”

“Roseanne” invites a relatively small audience--only 180 compared to, say, 270 for “Coach”--so it’s important for everyone to make noise, he explains.

“This may seem scripted, not natural,” he tells the audience, “but for television, that’s OK.”

At a recent taping--”Roseanne,” unlike most other sitcoms, still uses videotape--the show moved quickly, with many scenes completed in just one take.

Midway through, Tom Arnold, Roseanne’s husband and the show’s executive producer, told a few jokes and bared the large tattoos on his chest.

But the people seemed more interested in seeing Roseanne.

“Got any tattoos you want to show the people, honey?” he called out.

She obliged.

WHERE AND WHEN

Show locations: “Seinfeld,” “Evening Shade” and “Roseanne” are produced at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City. “Home Improvement” is produced at Walt Disney Studios, “The Tonight Show” at NBC Studios and “Murphy Brown” at Warner Bros. Studios, all in Burbank. “Coach” is filmed at Universal Studios in Universal City.

Tickets: For “Seinfeld,” call (310) 795-5254. For “The Tonight Show,” call (818) 840-3537. For all other shows, call Audiences Unlimited, (818) 506-0067.

Caution: Many shows enforce a minimum age of 16 and prohibit cameras.